Wanting to Talk
by Memory in Crimson
Summary: Hosokawa has a cold and poor little Reycom must be his nurse. But Reycom has little idea of how to treat a sick human.


**Title: **Wanting to Talk

**Author: **Danni

**Summary: **Hosokawa has a cold and poor little Reycom must be his nurse. But Reycom has little idea of how to treat a sick human.

**Warning: **mild language.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Konjiki no Gash,_ nor do I profit off this piece of fanfiction.

**Language notes: **I've created a couple words for Reycom's dialect from the Makai and a couple Japanese references.

_Nikiti _(Reycom's clan (RC), Makai) 'mummy,' mother.

_Gaki _(Japanese) brat; kid. A common name Hosokawa gives Reycom.

_Oplaluöl _(RC) snowball. Reycom's nickname.

-------

"Mmm... five more minutes, _Nikiti_," moaned the little sleeper in his happy slumber. "It's too warm to get up... Mmm? Ah!"

Little Reycom nearly jumped when he saw the fish head staring back at him. He pouted his lips and glanced at it smugly.

"Hmph! Stupid breakfast," he cursed and then smirked. "You're mine—ah!" And he grabbed the frozen fish and devoured it in matter of seconds. Reycom licked his lips.

"Okay, feeling better now," and he folded his wool blankets in his short wooden bed. He stretched, grabbed his trousers and strolled bare foot to the freezer door, which had been modified to open and close like any other door. Reycom peeked outside into the garage, tiptoed out, and shut the door.

"Saturday," he said to himself, remembering yesterday's weekly meeting, which Hosokawa had had with his new-found 'friends.' It was only six in the morning, but the human liked an early wake-up call from his 'tool' (Reycom doubled as an alarm clock).

Reycom strolled up to the house and opened the door. He crept inside quietly and locked the door. Then he hurried up the stairs to his Master's bedroom.

"Hosokawa?" he whispered as he peeked through the entrance. Then he stepped inside to wake him.

Under the helter-skelter blankets, Hosokawa's body lay contorted in a wretched somnolence. A mere arm protruded from the side of the bed from under the covers. Reycom crept closer. "Hosokawa?"

The man moaned quietly, slightly shifting. Reycom kneeled before the arm and sat on his heels. "Hosokawa?"

"Harrumph!" He groaned.

Annoyed, Reycom stood and crawled on top of his Master. "Hosokawa, Hosokawa"—he started to shake him—"Hosokawa, Hosokawa, Ho... so... ka... wa!" Finally he pulled off the blankets that covered the man's head. Reycom realised that he would have to offend him in order to wake him.

So he smacked the top of his head hard and cried his first name: _"Akira!"_

"Ah!" Hosokawa sat in a bolt, alarmed. "What the hell?" Though dazed, he finally realised that Reycom was the guilty party. He moaned and lay on his belly again.

"Mmm, _gaki_," moaned a very annoyed Hosokawa, "what are you doing?"

"Being your alarm clock," he replied. "You said to wake you up early today."

Hosokawa moaned and rolled his eyes. He sniffled, coughed and pulled the covers over his head. But Reycom tried to prevent his action.

"No, _gaki_," and Hosokawa's hand reached for any spiked locks on which to grab. He pulled Reycom by his hair and off the bed and to the ground. The Mamono yelped.

"Watch it!" whined the child, but if Hosokawa could shrug away the complaint, he might have. Instead, he plopped under the covers.

Curious Reycom turned and looked at the pale, sickly face of his Master peering at him. He cocked his head. "You got darks under your eyes."

"Yeah, and?"

"I dunno..."

A brief silence passed.

"Your voice also sounds softer."

"The better with what to bark commands at you, my dear," replied the man sarcastically.

"Wait, what?"

"Never mind. It's part of a human tale."

"Oh." Another pause passed before: "Wait, wha? Hey! You have to tell me what's wrong with you. You're sniffling and look worse than usual."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, like I need _you _pointing that out?"

"What's wrong?" asked Reycom as he crawled on the bed again.

Hosokawa coughed and rolled onto his back. He pulled the covers down to his waist and replied, "I have a sore throat. It is very _painful_, even when I don't speak. Is this the conclusion of the session, Mister Prime Minister?"

Reikom raised a hairless eyebrow, not at all pleased with Hosokawa's poor demeanor. For this he slapped him again, albeit gently.

"Do you mind?" Hosokawa nearly shouted, but he coughed violently. "Damn it!"

"Why is your throat sore?" asked Reycom.

Hosokawa moaned. He replied tiredly, "I'm guessing because I spend too much time in the cold. Especially when you start firing icicles out of your mouth."

Reycom ignored the last sentence. "But I've lived in the cold all my life, and I've never gotten a... sore throat."

"It's a human thing. We get sick when it's very cold, and then we get what's called a cold. We also get sick when it's very hot, but we don't get colds that way—"

"Oh! I know what that's like!" chimed Reycom. "My sisters and I had to go see relatives in the North of my world, where it's warmer. And when we got to this one desert, I got really sick and nearly _died._" He blinked, wide-eyed, while he paused. "It was quite troublesome."

Hosokawa gave no reply for a moment. "I wouldn't doubt it," and he slipped off the bed to straighten the covers. Reycom could not help staring at him. "What?"

For a moment the boy gave no reply. Hosokawa's left eye twitched violently. "_What,_ damn it?"

"You're naked," replied the child frankly, and the man glanced at himself. He raised an eyebrow and pulled the sheet over his crotch.

"So I am..." And then he looked at Reycom. "It's warm. I feel hot. I probably have a high temperature."

Reycom's eyes widened.

"What?" But the demon's pink lips twitched as he tried to suppress a smile and a snicker. "_What? _You're starting to freak me out, _gaki._ Guh! Just forget it!" And he yanked off the quilt, having only one sheet under which to lie. He blushed. "Leave me alone..."

"Hmm," hummed the little Mamono. "Should I get you anything? Any drink?"

"Please," grumbled Hosokawa. "My throat's killing me."

Reycom hopped to his feet and hurried down the stairs. He returned rather quickly and handed his Master a glass of ice water. As soon as Hosokawa drank it, he gasped.

"Oh, gods!" He coughed and coughed.

"Wha? What's wrong?" asked a surprised Reycom.

If Hosokawa could have, then he would have snarled. Instead he muttered raspily, "No ice water! That just irritates the problem."

"But I drink ice water when I feel bad."

"I'm human, remember?" Hosokawa shook his head and rolled his eyes. "I need tea, I need something hot. You got that?"

"Mmm hmm," replied Reycom, and he returned to the kitchen, glass in hand.

Reycom gathered all the supplies: porcelain teapot, tea cup, bottled water, and green tea. He had no idea how to operate a stove (and even if he did, he had a lifelong fear of fire). So he heated the water in the microwave, grabbed a tray, and hurriedly delivered the tea to his Master.

"Good," said Hosokawa, but without looking, he drank the tea. He gagged as he swallowed the contents.

"Eek!" Reycom nearly jumped. Hosokawa glanced inside his cup and glanced at the boy.

"Reycom," he scolded, "why are leaves in my tea?"

"I don't understand."

Hosokawa grinned not so joyfully and glanced at the setup of the teapot innards. He snickered, "Yea-ea-eah... And _why_ did you not use the filter?"

"But my _Nikiti_ has us drink the tea _with_ the leaves," replied the ever-naïve Reycom.

"Your what?"

"My mum."

"Human here!"

Reycom cocked his head. He grinned. "No! Get out of here. You crazy? You really don't drink the leaves?" He giggled, but Hosokawa remained as stoic as ever.

"Oh, uh, nevermind..."

The man sighed, exasperated. "Look, kid, don't worry about it. I'll drink it as it is, 'cause it's certainly better than nothing, but..." He sighed again and sipped his tea, grimacing at the bitter taste of the leaves.

Reycom grabbed the tray off Hosokawa's lap and set it on the nearby night table. He scurried out and down the stairs to the living room, reclining on the couch to rest his eyes.

"Hmm, I miss home," he chimed, but he remembered the great prize at stake, which he would lose it he lost focus; the Crown. Reycom grinned at how proud his family would be, especially the High Elder of his village, who had given him one of the highest Blessings.

_I cannot disappoint them, _he thought. _I cannot make a fool of myself._ Then he sighed. "Maybe I should tell him now..."

Reycom sat and strolled towards the closest. He removed a large flokati—a thick woolen blanket—and wrapped it around himself. Then he turned on the television to the news station and plopped on the couch, drifting into a light nap.

--------

"Woah! What?" he started suddenly and glanced about the room. "Oh! Nearly fell asleep," but then he glanced at the clock above the television. Thirty or so minutes had passed without his having realised it. "That's weird."

Reycom hopped off the couch and marched up the stairs. He scurried through the bedroom to see to Hosokawa. But the man was not in his bed.

"Hosokawa?" Reycom looked under the covers but found no body. He tossed off his flokati and marched towards the bathroom, creeping inside it. "Hosokawa?"

"Ah!" The man nearly jumped. "What? I'm trying to wash here."

"Why?"

"To feel better," he replied, "to not feel so sick and disgusting. So would you mind shutting the door so the heat doesn't escape?"

Reycom remained inside as he shut the door. He strolled over to Hosokawa and sat on a second stool against the wall, watching the man scrub his hair.

"And?"

"And what?" asked Reycom.

"Nevermind..." He knew that the boy had something to say, but he needed only a few more seconds; only a few, tiny, insignificant—

"Why not use a sauna first?"

Lo, the thirty-two-year-old Japanese man had the ability to predict like an eighty-year-old Delphi priestess. Hosokawa snarled.

"Human here," he replied. "Are you _that _dense?"

"Maybe!" growled Reycom, pouting and crossing his arms. "What of it, you sick, old man?"

And if he were not sick, Hosokawa would have struck him for the comment. Instead, he looked at him with wide eyes and one eyebrow raised. "You've gotta be kidding me." But Reycom stared at him unfalteringly. The human sighed. "Whatever, _gaki_."

Finally he rinsed out his hair and settled himself in the bath full of hot water. Reycom settled closer to him, eyeing him in—what Hosokawa noted as—a suspicious way.

"What?" he asked, but the boy merely stared into his eyes. "_What? _I'm warning you, _gaki_, you had better stop it!" But Reycom remained unwavering. Hosokawa glared but settled back into the water, pouting intensely like a child.

_Little freak, _he thought.

"What was it like being with _your _mother?" asked Reycom suddenly.

"Hmm?" Hosokawa glanced away for a moment. "Well, that's an odd question... Why ask?"

"Just wondering."

"Oh..." A silence passed.

"Do you miss your mother, _gaki_? What did you call her, your _Nikiti_?"

Reycom looked into his eyes. "Huh? Oh. Yeah. Sometimes. I was actually closer to my sister. I have two of them and one brother."

"Yeah?" Hosokawa's fingers lightly splashed the water, an action reflecting his minor interest. "Hmm, well, I was an only child, and my father wasn't there much... I mean, he was a good man to my mother, just that he was clumsy sometimes. Got killed when I was sixteen..."

"Oh!" That caught the child's attention. "Oh, I'm sorry. I..."

"Yeah, well, it's better than if he died while I would have been _your _age. I was able to help my mother, able to work... but that's one reason I've been so poor until late...

"But you. You said you had a sister you like?"

"Yeah, Rikasilia."

"Pretty name. She give you a pet name of some sort?"

"She always called me her little _Oplaluöl_."

"Her what?" Hosokawa grinned at the strange word.

"Her little 'Snowball,' " replied Reycom. "My clan has a different dialect from the rest of the Mamono language, but some folks say it's another language unto itself."

"Hmph! Pretty nice diction you're using yourself, _gaki_," said Hosokawa, but the boy merely pouted.

"No way! Least I'm smarter and stronger than most eight-year-old humans," he grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Fine, little Snowball." Hosokawa smirked, and he closed his eyes.

The Mamono sighed and propped his chin on both hands. He listened to idle human fingers, which lightly splashed the water, and to the occasional sneeze, which broke the calm. And just when he remembered that he wanted to tell Hosokawa about the War, the man had decided to drain the tub.

"Um... Hosokawa," began Reycom, "can I talk to you about something?"

"After I get a robe on and myself some decent tea," he replied. "Go wait in the kitchen."

Reycom would have protested, saying how important it was, but he shut his gaping maw and trudged outsied the bathroom. Casting one last glance, he marched to the kitchen and climped atop one of the stools, hands under his chin as he waited anxiously for his Master.

Down trudged the human, not in any particular rush to prepare his tea. He slipped the pot over the stove and joined Reycom, his own hands knitting under his chin.

"So what did you want to talk about, _gaki_?" asked Hosokawa, snapping the boy from his dreamlike state.

"Oh! Uh... Eh, nothing really," he said. "I'd just been thinkin' to myself."

A hand slipped through those wild spikes. Reycom looked up and saw a weak smile, uncharacteristic of the usual demented fair, on Hosokawa's face.

"Ah, _gaki_, you think too much," he said. "You're just like I was at your age: rather silent but always thinking."

"Mmm," he hummed.

Hosokawa sighed and released his locks. He closed his eyes and began to nod into sleep when Reycom asked, "Hosokawa? Would you..."

The man opened one eye. The boy hesitated and shook his head. Hosokawa smiled, "What's the matter, _gaki_? Do something else to grieve my day?"

Reycom groaned. He asked, "Will you ever let anything happen to my book? Anything bad?"

"You kidding?" Hosokawa smirked. "Kid, if anything happened to that book of yours, I'd be screwed. And you? You'd have a lot to lose too, I bet. I'm not going to let one damn thing bad happen to that book."

"Especially fire?"

"Well, of course! What? You got a premontion of some kind?"

"No, no! Just asking," replied Reycom, and he smiled weakly.

Hosokawa grinned brightly. "Ah, _gaki_, you're a tool, but your a wonderful tool. And pretty good company," and he scratched those icy blue locks playfully.

"Hey!" Reycom waved his hands through the air.

"All right, _gaki, _off with ya," and Hosokawa shooed him away. "I don't want you ruining my tea again."

"I didn't even touch yer damn tea," snickered the boy.

"Yeah, yeah, well, your spirit alone might do damage to it. Why don't you go outside and scare away anyone who'd try to put his nose in our business?"

Reycom rounded, pouting. Hosokawa poured his tea into the cup and then glanced at him. He smirked again and waved a dismissive hand at him. The boy vanished and scurried to the door. Before he turned the knob, he groaned.

"I didn't tell him," he murmured, "but I guess I don't need to. He won't let anything happen to that book as long as I'm useful."

He sighed and turned as Hosokawa slipped into the living room and reclined on the couch, sipping his tea. The man glanced at him and asked, "Why aren't you outside, Reycom?"

"Mmm?" The boy's eyes widened. Hosokawa rarely called him by his name, except out of some vague affection. "I... I..." He shook his head and released the knob. He walked to Hosokawa and kneeled besides him. "I think... I'll just stay inside today."

Hosokawa ruffled his hair again. He took one last sip of tea and set the cup on the table. He pat his lap and set Reycom on top.

"Aiya, _gaki_, this just isn't our day," sighed Hosokawa, and his back slumped as he closed his eyes and rested his head.

"Mmm..." _No, I think it is our day, _thought Reycom, and he nestled his head against the man's chest, resting his eyes and hugging his neck as if he were his father.


End file.
